


Emi and her Mare

by henghost



Series: My (non-fan)Fiction [5]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Flash Fic, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-31
Updated: 2020-12-31
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:41:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28447083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/henghost/pseuds/henghost
Summary: Someone obsessed with Emi comes into contact with a series of horses.
Series: My (non-fan)Fiction [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1840654
Kudos: 3





	Emi and her Mare

Bad start to the day in Starbucks. Kerfuffle with the barista, this tall pale guy. He spelled Emi wrong. He spelled it “Emmy.” I said to him, “It’s E-M-I, you moron.” He said, “You’ve got the coffee don’t you?” So on the way out I knocked over one of the bags of beans they were selling, although I’m not sure he noticed. In the parking lot there were horses. I tasted the coffee and it tasted like metal, like he’d put blood in it. The horses were gathered around a streetlamp and neighing at one another. What was strange was that there were horses in the office lot as well. I was a few minutes late due to the kerfuffle, so I didn’t have time to stop and ask them what they were doing, but they were arranged the same way: conspiratorially, as though they were plotting something, as though they could only speak in the parking lot because everywhere else was bugged. I tossed the coffee in a ditch.

I had been working as a temp for this company. It was a nothing job, as in I did nothing. They paid me to sit in one spot and do nothing. Every so often a man (I assume he was my boss) would step out of his all-glass office to ask me how it was going, and I would tell him it was going great, thanks, and he’d grin and go back to his own agenda of nothing. 

I pulled Emi up on my phone. She had red eyes like she’d been crying. I said to her, “Emi. I hope you’re alright. Funny story: I was in Starbucks earlier and I asked them to put your name on the cup, but they spelled it wrong, ha ha ha.” She didn’t hear me. The Heaven’s Gate cult, you know, who all committed suicide — they believed that beauty standards would continue to progress toward the alien ideal. I looked at Emi and thought they must have been right. I wasn’t allowed a lunch break. Instead Emi entertained us by drawing on her notepad, which was better than eating, really. She drew a cartoony version of Noah’s Ark.

Then after a billion years Bossman let me go. The commute back (during which, of course, I couldn’t be in contact with Emi) felt longer than the workday itself. When I first got the car I tried to put Emi on the stereo, but my car didn’t like her. It sputtered and skipped. So I was speeding, just a bit, to get back to her quicker, and what do you know I hit one of those goddamn horses. It screeched and spun over my hood all ragdoll. I wanted to keep going but the other commuters got in my way, so I had to exit my smashed Camry and check to see if the horse was okay. The horse was not okay. Its legs had gone sort of accordion-shaped. Its eyes spun around like it was dreaming. I put my head close to its mouth so it could tell me its dying wish, but by that point it was already gone. I told the onlookers, “It’s okay. Nothing to see here. Let’s just get back in our cars.” And we all got back in our cars. My Camry managed to start despite the horse-dent. 

Back home Mom was picking up chairs and slamming them down. She was running laps around the living room. I asked her what was wrong and she said, “You moron! Charles, your classmate, remember? Well, he’s married now. Married! Did you hear me?”

“I heard you, Mom,” I said.

“Married!” she said.

I went to my room to escape her. The Emis on my wall greeted me. “Hi,” they all said, and winked. I slumped to the floor and took the bottle from underneath my bed and drank. Mom had been like that since the Incident. What the Incident had involved was Dad getting torn up between the spokes of a tractor wheel. I pulled Emi up on my phone but she was gone. She simply wasn’t there. I looked everywhere and still could not find her. Oh no oh no oh no, I thought. I put my face in my hands. The Emis on my wall were strangely quiet on the matter. 

Then while I was weeping there was a thunderous sort of knocking at my door. “Mom!” I said. “I don’t care! Charles deserved it more than me anyway!” But the door shot away from its hinges and bounced around beside me. In the plastery aftermath was another horse, a big chestnut mare. “Hi,” she said, and winked. “Listen, your privileges have been revoked. Hate to say it, but Emi doesn’t want you to see her anymore. Not after what you did.”

“What did I do?” I said.

“You know what you did,” she said, and set to work tearing the Emis from the wall. They all screamed at once. The mare whistled while she did it.

**Author's Note:**

> Feedback greatly appreciated (please I'm very desperate) :)


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